Modder demasters Dark Souls into pixel, retro nightmare

eurogamer.net:

If you've ever wondered what it'd feel like to be back in 1999, booting up your PSX and popping in a Dark Souls disc, then modder thegreatgramcracker over on Nexus Mods has got you covered with Pixel Souls: Demastered.

The mod takes Dark Souls Remastered and replaces textures with pixel art based on the original game's textures, decreases model quality, and reduces the quality of music and sound effects for a «fun, somewhat cursed, 'retro' feel,» says thegreatgramcracker.

Demakes and demasters have seen a boom over the past few years, and Dark Souls now joins the likes of other FromSoftware games, including Bloodborne and Elden Ring to receive the lo-fi treatment.

A lot of work has gone into making each asset included in Pixel Souls: Demastered. thegreatgramcracker used their own custom algorithm to convert the game's textures into pixel art, which included downscaling each image and then resizing them to put on the correct models. Audio was extracted and rebuilt with Dark Souls FMOD projects by fellow modder HotPocketRemix. No AI was used to create the mod, thegreatgramcracker also added.

The trailer alone is chilling, particularly once the lower audio quality starts to kick in. Sadly, Pixel Souls is only compatible with Dark Souls Remastered and not the Prepare To Die Edition, which is what I have in my Steam library. Yes, I am considering buying the game just so I can try out this mod.

If, like me, this has got you feeling nostalgic but you don't own Dark Souls Remastered on PC, there's plenty of other demakes out there to enjoy. As well as Bloodborne and Elden Ring mentioned previously, there's also fanmade demakes of Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 4, and Dead Space out there. Next year, the excellent Bloodborne